The 82nd Hunger Games: Haunting Silence
by Schwan
Summary: A changed boy losing his family. An abused girl with no family. These were the Victors of the 81st Hunger Games. Now Jack and Urea must face the worst of the Hunger Games: the aftermath, and despite their new-found love, Snow is making it nearly impossible for them to keep from breaking, because they never imagined that they'd be playing again. Second story in the Silence Series.


**Hey, guys! Schwan here! With my first sequel! So I lied, and I haven't written 5 chapters in like I said, but I decided I'd just get this out here now. Hopefully, the next update won't be too long in waiting.**

_**WARNING:**_**For those of you who haven't read the first story in the series, I would suggest doing it. This sequel will, of course, contain tons and tons of spoilers for the previous story, and this will probably be really confusing if you don't. But if you don't feel like it, then by all means, read on. I'll do my best to at least semi-catch-you-up on everything that's happened.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.**

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Chapter 1

Jackson Axdiez

"_It's a crystal necklace. As long as you have it, you'll be okay."_

Fifteen-year-old Jackson Axdiez jolted awake and flailed for his bedside dagger, falling to the floor in the process. Groaning, he sat up and gazed around his room, half expecting Hazel to pad across the thick carpet and help him up.

But that wasn't happening anytime soon.

Jack rubbed his face and stood before strolling to the window seat set into one of the walls. The sky was cloudy and gray, threatening to release a torrent of rain on District 12. It had been raining a lot lately. It seemed to have started after the funeral, as if Mother Nature herself were mourning the death of Jack's little sister.

There had been a lot more people there than Jack had expected, but he suspected that some of them were three for the food, horrible as the prospect was. District 12 was poor; its people were poor, and they were hungry. Jack didn't blame them. A few months ago, he'd been as hungry as them.

Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch had been there. The third had been surprisingly somber, and none of the Victors shed so much as a single tear, including Jack. Of course, Jack felt like the world was crashing down around him, but he knew who had done this. Why they had done it. He knew he was being watched. He wasn't going to show weakness to that snake, no matter how expected it seemed. Plus, his parents nearly drown in their tears. Jack knew he had to be strong for them, if not for anything else.

Instead of a funeral for his twelve-year-old sister, the rainy day seemed more of a long stretch of déjà vu to Jack. During the entire somber procession, Katniss stood at his side, hand on his shoulder. Jack wondered if this was how Urea felt, at her sisters' funerals or her mother's. Shedding no tears, with a strong Victor by her side, even if that person soon turned into an abusive father. At least Jack knew he could count on Katniss.

Jack missed Urea. He missed her a lot.

Jack shook himself and silently headed for the bathroom directly connected to his bedroom. He carelessly tossed his dagger on to his bed and entered the cold tiled room. Climbing into the shower, Jack stood under the steaming water for a long time, reveling in the luxury few could afford in District 12. When he finally stepped out, he was sopping wet, dripping all over the floor. Grabbing a towel off the wall rack, he furiously rubbed his head, restoring the white diagonal spike sticking straight out from his head that was called his hair. He wiped water out of his blue eyes and dried the rest of his lean frame with his towel. Ever since the 81st Hunger Games, Jack had put on a lot of muscle and kept it. He wasn't exactly a bodybuilder, but he was taller because of it, not including the four-inch growth spurt he'd just gone through.

Jack pulled himself into a pair of pants, a shirt, and a leather jacket. He yanked on some boots and gloves before wrapping his red headband around his forehead and touching a finger to his necklace.

The headband had been a gift from his mother and the necklace from Hazel before she…died. His father had given him a pair of katana, which Jack had been tempted to tear from their place in the wall several times after the day he found Hazel's head. Luckily, he hadn't done it quite yet.

Jack lifted his gaze to the mirror in front of him.

It was still there. It always would be.

A long, thin scar cut across Jack's face, running from his left brow to his right cheekbone, right between his eyes. It cut through the phoenix tattoo set over his right eye, to this day shimmering as if it were on fire. Rin had one too, of a fox, before she had...

Jack shook his head furiously and wrestled through the door. He grabbed his dagger again and headed downstairs, slipping it inside his jacket. He stopped in the kitchen to eat a quick peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich before stepping out the door and locking it behind him. His parents were out. They still worked, but his father had gotten out of the mines. For that, Jack was grateful.

Jack strolled calmly towards the outskirts of the District, waving to a few people who passed by. He finally got to the fence. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching before ducking into the hole and darting into the forest on the other side.

Treading quietly, he slipped between the trees until coming to a single hallowed one. He slipped out a bow and quiver full of arrows. Then he bounded through the forest once more, dodging trunks and holes, as well as a few little nasty squirrels. Finally, he came to his destination.

Jack heaved himself up into the tree beside him and plopped onto a single thick branch strong enough to hold his weight. He strung his bow and notched an arrow, aiming. He breathed in and out deeply for a few seconds before finally releasing. The arrow whizzed through the air and thumped into the tree below, just on the outside edge of the white circle painted on the trunk. Jack drew another arrow and shot that one. This one sunk into the wood just above the first. Sighing, Jack drew another arrow and lined it up again.

"You're distracted today, aren't you?"

The arrow flew wildly off target and disappeared into the forest. Jack fell out of the tree with a yelp. He leaped to his feet and whirled. "Stop doing that, will you?"

Katniss Everdeen smirked the tiniest bit and stepped away from her spot leaning against the trunk. With an ease that Jack knew he'd never be able to manage, she scaled up the tree and took his place on the thick branch as if nothing had happened. Jack glared at her half-heartedly.

"You usually shoot better than that," she continued, barely glancing at the target as she shot an arrow straight into the bull's-eye.

"Tired," Jack grumbled, rubbing the back of his head where a glob of sap had made a chunk of sticky liquid in his hair.

"Of course you are." Jack watched another arrow hit right next to the first one. "You always are."

"Don't you get that way sometimes?" Jack asked, tearing his eyes away from the tree to look up at her.

She shook her head at him and shot another bull's-eye. "Not anymore. I guessed you'd be like this until the Victory Tour. You'll get over it by then, especially when you see Urea again."

Jack was silent for a while as she shot another few. When she finally emptied her quiver, she leaped from the tree and landed easily on the damp ground. She looked at him questioningly.

"Katniss," he said, even though she was looking at him. "I need your help with something."

She nodded at him to continue.

"Tyler's birthday is in five days, and…" Jack paused before blurting, "I wanted to make him something. I mean, this'll be his first birthday without Rin, and-"

His mouth shut. He should've been ready to talk about Rin. But ever since he'd been yanked from Urea in the Capitol, he'd been having nightmares. He was sleepwalking. He was…

"Okay, Jack," Katniss said softly.

Relief filled Jack and he swallowed. Then he smiled and said, "I know I still need a lot of improvement with my shot, so I was hoping you could get something for me and I could do the rest."

Katniss nodded. "Okay, Jack," she repeated.

Jack nodded, and then rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "But, um, maybe tomorrow…?"

Katniss smiled. "Yeah," she agreed, glancing at the sky as a drop landed on her nose. "It's about to rain anyways. I don't know about you, but I'm not up for hunting in the rain right now."

Jack nodded, and together the two of them headed back for the fence. Jack stored his bow and quiver back into the tree, and Katniss shoved hers in beside them. They went back to the fence, and after checking the area, as well as the electricity, they crawled through, one after the other.

"If you're tired, take a nap," Katniss told Jack as they walked back through the trashy street, side-by-side.

"I can't sleep during the day," Jack said, shaking his head.

Katniss smirked. "Then get something from Haymitch. I'm sure he'll have something that can make you pass out like a rock."

"I'm not going to drink alcohol," Jack grumbled, wrinkling his nose. "It's gross."

"Have to agree with you there," Katniss commented dryly. "Although, it does make you forget when you want to. I can't exactly blame Haymitch."

"Yeah, me neither," Jack agreed. Tentively, he asked, "Do you drink?"

"Oh, sometimes," Katniss said, waving a hand. "Thanks to Peeta, I'm not a drunk like Haymitch, and somehow we've even managed to make _him _drink less than when we first met him."

Jack was silent. Then he asked, "Do you remember her?"

Katniss looked at him.

"Evelyn," Jack elaborated. "Do you remember her?"

Katniss looked away, a pained expression on her face. "Of course," she said. "You always remember your first kill."

"But you didn't really kill her," Jack protested. "You just dropped the nest. The Tracker Jackers were what killed her."

"Really?" Katniss said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Is that what Urea thinks?"

Jack couldn't answer to that. But he said, "What happened? You and Peeta. I thought you were, y'know…"

Katniss's face instantly darkened. "We were," she said, voice hard. "But something happened. I was stupid, and we decided staying apart was the better way to protect each other."

Seeing the shadow on her face, Jack decided he'd better not ask.

They walked in silence until they reached Victor Villa, where Katniss headed into her house without another word to Jack. He shrugged and went in his house, climbing up the stairs. Once he'd gone into his room, he slipped off his jacket and replaced it with overalls. He darted downstairs and locked the door behind himself once more.

He headed for the south side of the District, the side where the mines were. When he got to the courtyard wrapped by a chain link fence, a Peacekeeper stopped him and patted him down with black-gloved hands. He studied Jack's face for a long moment before waving him past the gate. Miners were milling in tiny groups around the courtyard, holding their equipment in their arms. Jack headed to the one edge of the courtyard and picked up his helmet, pick-axe, and sackcloth. Then he turned as the last faction of the last shift of miners tiredly crowded out of the elevator. There was aloud, single toll of a bell, and Jack and the other miners of the morning shift reluctantly moved forward.

Jack stood waiting as the elevator went up and down several times, carrying numerous factions of miners down into the earth. When they finally called the southeast shaft faction, Jack crammed himself into the elevator with over two dozen other men and women. The elevator slid down into the darkness of the earth. The little yellow bulb in the ceiling of the elevator flickered over their head. One man sneezed, and the Peacekeeper in the elevator glanced back at him disgustedly, as if he had just exploded.

Finally, the elevator jolted to squealing stop, and the Peacekeeper rolled the metal door open. The faction all but poured out. The Peacekeeper didn't even hesitate the slightest in returning to the surface, and five of the miners lit oil lamps in the black darkness he left behind. Together, the faction moved forward without a word until they reached their destination: a huge wall with an enormous vein of coal slicing straight through it.

As soon as they came to it, the miners spread out. They turned the lamps on high and a few lugged over a train of mine cars. Then they all pulled on their helmets, dropped their sacks beside them, and hefted their pick-axes. After a few minutes of silence, a few men began murmuring to each other. One man with a scraggly beard and dark skin sidled up beside Jack, still pounding away at the rock.

"So, Jack," he grunted. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Shoot," Jack replied.

"Why d'you still work in the mines?" he asked. "You won the Games. You could sit all day and still have money left over. Why do something you don't have to do?"

Jack was silent for a while, feeling the eyes of some of the other miners on him. Finally, he said, "I wish I could say it's because I like to help other, but that's not really it. The thing is…if I'm not doing something, if I just sit around, then the memories come back and I have to deal with them. Plus, I think I'm on the bad side of some very important people. I'm actually probably safer down here than on the surface."

There was a sharp laugh from the man on Jack's left, who had brown hair and stubble on his chin. His brown eyes were almond-shaped, and he was smiling with a mouth full of crooked and yellow teeth. "Good, boy," the man grunted. "That's the kid I know. Truthful to the bone."

Jack grinned. "Thank, Renwal."

"That's sir to you, boy," Renwal ordered, faking a scowl.

"Yes, sir," Jack replied, making a somber face.

Renwal and Jack were good friends. He was the one who'd taught Jack how to fight with katana, and he had also been the one to help Rin nurture her good rock-throwing aim into full-out archery. Despite how close they'd become, Renwal always insisted they call him 'sir', and he never failed in dubbing them 'boy' and 'girl.'

"Boy!" Renwal barked. "What are you planning to do tonight? Need I lock up my doors and close my windows?"

Jack grinned again. "Yeah, I would if I were you."

The miner on Jack's right grinned too. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

Jack turned to him. "You'll see," he said mysteriously.

"Oh, come on," he insisted. "The suspense is killing us."

Jack shook his head and feigned zipping his lips.

"Fine, boy," Renwal said on his left. "But I'll be givin' you a grade tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," Jack replied, nodding sagely.

There was silence after that. Eventually, all the chatter died away as the men slowly tired out. When the elevator shaft finally rumbled down to their level, they were already waiting with sacks on their shoulders and mine cars by their sides. They dumped it all in and the Peacekeeper went up with the coal first .It was fifteen minutes before he came back and they crowded in with him. When they got the surface, Jack tiredly dropped off his equipment and dragged himself home.

He managed to climb up the stairs one more time. He stripped off his overalls and threw them into his closet before collapsing onto his bed. He glanced at the clock to see it was already three o'clock and groaned. Heading back downstairs, he fixed himself another sandwich and devoured it within seconds. Then he crashed on the couch and slowly closed his eyes. Maybe he could sleep after all...

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Jack jolted awake and fell off the couch. He landed on the plush carpet with a groan. It seemed like whenever he fell asleep, he just woke up and fell on the floor. It happened _all the time._

Grumbling as he climbed to his feet, Jack glanced at the clock again. It was six thirty.

Jack grinned. Perfect timing.

Completely refreshed now that he'd gotten some sleep, Jack pounded up the stairs and grabbed an armful of what he needed. He darted back down and dashed out the door. As soon as he got out of Victor Village, he stuck to the alleys. He managed to get to the square unnoticed. Pulling his shirt over his head so no one would recognize his unmistakable spike of white hair, he cradled his weapons in his arms and sprinted into the center of the square.

As expected, since it was just turning dark, there was no one there. Not even any Peacekeepers. Jack glanced around before tugging a can of orange spray paint out from beneath his shirt. With this can and two others, he covered the plaza in words, ones that the Peacekeepers would find the next morning and clean up, but not before the majority of District 12 noticed them.

When Jack was finished, he tossed the three cans of paint up onto the roof of the Justice Building and then hurried out of the square and into the closest alley. After a few cautious minutes of waiting, he peeked out of the alley, looking both ways before he stepped out onto the empty street. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he casually walked away from the area of disaster. Upon spotted a Peacekeeper sleeping propped up just a few blocks away, he had to suppress a snicker, and once he had turned the corner, he had to let out a loud giggle. Beside him, the door to one house opened and a gray-haired woman emerged with a filthy towel in her hands. When she saw him, she smiled.

"Hello, Jack," she said.

"Hey, Mrs. Elliston," Jack replied, stopping to speak with her. "How are you today?"

"I'm very good," she responded, her smile growing just the tiniest bit. She glanced both ways down the street before telling Jack to stay where he was. She disappeared into her house for a few moments before popping her head back out the door. He motioned him over and placed a pastry wrapped in a towel in his hands. Jack looked up at her face, surprised.

"No," he said firmly, pushing it back to her. "I've got plenty of food. You keep this."

She shook her head and shoved it back at him. "That may be true, Jack, but it's not every day you get a butter roll."

That made Jack falter. "This is a butter roll?" he asked, almost awed.

The woman nodded. Jack glanced down at the towel in his hands, then back up at her face. She nodded at him and took a step back into her house. "Be careful, Jack," she said. "You're a good kid. Don't let the Capitol change that." Then she closed the door.

Jack stood there for a long moment with the wrapped pastry. Then he slipped it into his pocket and headed for his home. He barely noticed as more Peacekeepers rushed by. He stared down at his feet, thinking.

Every since he had come home from the 81st Hunger Games, people had been treating him differently. Even his parents acted unusual around him now, especially after Hazel had… It seemed like everybody in District 12 knew his name now, when before he had been a simple teen who had ended up as a miner because of the trouble he caused at school with his friend. Now people told him to be careful, that he was a good kid and they didn't want the Capitol to change that. But the Capitol had already changed that. After he found Hazel's disembodied head on his doorstep, he'd been nurturing a secret hate for the Capitol and the Gamemakers and one person in particular.

Rin had always been talking of the old man who was Panem's president. Even out in the open, where Peacekeepers glared at her, but knew that flogging her would do nothing to tone down the mild rebellion. Jack knew that Urea already hated him as well, and for a very good reason, too. When President Snow had placed her half of the crown atop her head, the look she had given him…

He was at his house. Jack shook his head and lifted his gaze to the door. He knew his priorities. He knew who he hated and who he loved. He knew what he could do and what he had to do. First and foremost, he had to protect the people he loved. He wasn't going to let the Capitol screw up his life like they had Urea's.

And that was that.

Jack sighed heavily and climbed the stairs, knowing his mother would be waiting in the hall with food on the table, tapping her foot and demanding as to where Jack had been. Jack would then make an excuse consisting of community service or mining. His parents now respected his personal privacy, because they knew he had seen much more of truth of the world than they had.

But when Jack opened the door, it was not his mother who greeted him, but Peeta. The man was tapping his foot, and he looked a little pale. When Jack stepped in, a mix of relief and dread flooded his face. Before Jack could say anything, he stepped closer and grabbed the front of his shirt. He leaned in close until his mouth was right next to his ear. Jack was stiff, fighting the urge to throw the man off him.

"Listen, Jack," he breathed, so quiet Jack could barely hear him. "Poker face. You got that? Poker face. You take a step further and you are invincible."

Peeta stepped back and stuffed his hands in his pocket. Jack wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but he obeyed his former Mentor's instructions. He schooled his face into an unreadable mask, which he had come to master soon after Hazel's funeral. He gently slipped off his shoes and nodded to Peeta. The man led him down the hall and into the kitchen. That was when Jack figured out what was going on.

Cold dread filled him at the sight of the four Peacekeepers sitting at his kitchen table. His mother, her face pale and her hands shaking, was stirring a pot of something that would've smelled delicious had it not been for the tension in the room, most of which was coming from his father, who sat perched on the edge of his chair between two of the Peacekeepers. When Jack stepped into the room beside Peeta, the entire attendance turned towards him.

Jack swallowed, forcing down his dismay. "Hey," he said easily, strolling over to his mother and pecking her on the cheek. He leaned over her shoulder and gazed into the pot. "What's for supper tonight?" A simple question, so full of meaning.

His mother understood. "Stew," she replied with a tight smile. He could hear the fear in her voice, see the terror in her eyes. Jack tipped his head down so his chin was on her shoulder for just a second, the slightest comfort. Then he turned back to the table and grinned at his father, who managed to fake a smirk back. The muscles in his neck were taut. Finally, Jack nodded to each of the Peacekeepers in turn, like he had just noticed them.

One of them stood and Jack almost leaped back, but managed to keep his feet planted firmly on the ground. "Come with me, Jackson," he said in a gruff voice, clipping off every single one of his words.

Jack nodded again and followed him as he led him down his own hall and towards the small library near the back of the house. Peeta brushed by him, on his way out of the kitchen in the slightest reminder, but Jack didn't falter. He strode purposefully after the Peacekeeper until they had arrived at the library door. Jack couldn't help the look of surprise that flashed across his face when he spotted Katniss leaning against the wall beside the door. Their eyes met and she nodded once. Her face was mask of indifference, but Jack could see the cold fury burning behind her gray eyes. There was somebody in that library that she _really _didn't like.

But both she and Jack kept silent as the Peacekeeper opened the door and closed it behind him. He murmured something inside the room as Katniss placed a hand on Jack's shoulder and squeezed. The Peacekeeper opened the door again and Katniss dropped her arm. He motioned for the two of them to enter and Katniss went first, Jack following after her. The Peacekeeper closed the door behind them and Jack turned his gaze to the man sitting at the desk in the center of the room.

"It's nice to see you again," Katniss said in a sickly sweet voice. "President Snow."

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**There you go! The first chapter!**

**Please review to let me know if there's anything I can do to improve or for just some encouragement. Follows and favorites are always appreciated as well!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs and the ETCA._


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